Memories Of You
by FG100
Summary: Chapter 13: Tonks makes her first discovery of Remus Lupin.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This will be a collection of drabbles and one shots, all centred around Charlie and Tonks. Some will be from Hogwarts, some from their Order days and some from after the Battle, some friendship, some suggesting a little more.

Disclaimer: The characters and magical world all belong to the brilliant J.K. Rowling.

...

September 1984

Charlie first saw her on the train. His eye caught a flash of blue, the exact shade of the Kingfishers he saw along the river near The Burrow. Woah. Did that girl have blue hair? He peered into the compartment, but no, he must have been mistaken. Her hair was a mousy brown. He felt his face redden as her brown eyes fixed upon him. Then, she winked. Smiling, Charlie walked back to the compartment he was sharing with his brother.

...

She stood in front of him in the line to be sorted. Somehow, she managed to trip over her own feet as the line shuffled forward. Charlie grabbed her robes to stop her from falling over.

"Thanks." She smiled at him, a warm smile that made Charlie want to be her friend.

Charlie noted that her hair was still mousy brown, but now her eyes were purple. Interesting.

"Tonks, Nymphadora."

Nymphadora? Charlie silently thanked his parents for giving him a normal name. He held back a laugh as she tripped again stepping up to put the hat on. There was no one there to catch her this time and she ended up on her hands and knees. As the occupants of the hall whispered and giggled, Charlie noticed that her hair went pink at the ends, although not as pink as her face.

He felt a little disappointed when the hat shouted "HUFFLEPUFF".

...

Charlie was pleased to see, on entering the Transfiguration classroom, that they would have this class with the Hufflepuffs. His eyes sought her out and he slid into the seat next to her. She eyed him warily.

"Nymphadora, isn't it? What sort of name is that? Nym-pha-dora!"

Her wand was suddenly centimetres from his face. "Don't EVER call me that. It's Tonks, got it? Else I'll hex you back to where you came from!"

Tetchy.

Unfortunately for Tonks, McGonagall chose that exact moment to make an entrance. "What is going on here, Miss Tonks? We will certainly not be hexing anyone anywhere. Five points from Hufflepuff."

Tonks went red, as did the ends of her hair.


	2. Chapter 2

May 1998

"You weren't here Charlie. Don't even try to guess how I'm feeling, how any of us are feeling, because you weren't here. You don't have a clue what it was like."

The door slammed and Charlie was left alone in his parent's kitchen. His brother's words stung, more so because they were true. He had been waiting for someone to say it for days; in fact he was surprised it had taken this long.

He thought of Ron, who had spent a year on the run, going through who knew what. Bill had been there to help out; Bill who was still suffering in wake of Greyback's attack, who was doing whatever he could for the Order. Ginny had been leading a rebel army at Hogwarts, the twins had been helping Lee Jordan with the radio broadcasts, even Percy had made it back for the start of the fight, even Percy had seen Fred one last time...

How many times had he told his siblings that he would be there for them, no matter what?

It was all a lie; he hadn't been there at all.

Oddly, it wasn't any of their faces that came to mind now, but that of an eleven year old girl, with brown, mousy hair, being shoved down a staircase by a sixth year Slytherin.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," he had stated boldly.

"I don't need protecting, thank you very much," she had huffed, but she let him help her up just the same.

As he watched her walk down the corridor, a thought struck Charlie. The knights in the story books never let the princess just walk away. I'm a Gryffindor, he told himself; I'm brave, I'm honourable.

Within seconds, he was back by her side. "I mean it, Nymphadora Tonks. I'm going to be your friend and I'm going to protect you. I promise."

She had scowled at him and walked off, but he took the fact that she didn't jinx him as a good sign.

Now, the memory left him hollow. He had promised her and the promise had been broken, just like the one he had made to his family.

So much for Gryffindor honour. Charlie Weasley felt that right now he didn't have much of that.

A/N: Writing Charlie angst seems to be my go to stress relief right now. I'll try and alternate it with something more light hearted.


	3. Chapter 3

September 1984

"Nymphadora!"

Nymphadora Tonks bristled. "It's-"

"Tonks, yeah, yeah I know, but Nymphadora is your real name, isn't it?"

The red headed Gryffindor boy sat himself in the seat next to her, just like he had in their first lesson.

Nymphadora inwardly groaned. Why wouldn't he leave her alone? She wished McGonagall would hurry up and start the lesson and force him into silence.

"So, I've figured you out. You're a Metamorphmagus. At least that's what my brother Bill thinks and he's always right!" Charlie declared smugly. Not that he would tell Bill that, of course.

Nymphadora stared at him. How had he figured that out? True, she hadn't been as careful as she could have been, but she'd kept her word, no morphing at school. Yes, there had been a few times when she had forgotten (possibly on purpose) but definitely never when he was around.

"It's the ends of your hair," Charlie continued. "They go red when you're embarrassed, just like they're doing now."

Some days, she loved her powers, but sometimes they were an absolute curse!

A/N: I'm going to play about with time a little bit with these, as I don't want to get too tied in to writing chronologically. I will try and keep early events at Hogwarts roughly in order though, so their developing friendship makes sense.

(For anyone reading 'An Identity', chronology is precisely the reason I keep stalling – I have too many ideas for older Teddy and complete writers block when it comes to filling out the few gaps I need to plug before he grows up a bit!)


	4. Chapter 4

Late August, 1996

It had been a long night. One of the young dragons was sick and it had been Charlie's turn to sit with her. Still, the Romanian sun rise almost made it worth staying up all night. A sweep of dusky pink rose from behind the distant, cloud topped mountains, their silhouettes becoming more apparent as it changed to the burning, orange glow of the appearing sun. Coupled with the early morning birdsong and the gentle snorts of the other dragons, in Charlie's eyes this was absolute perfection.

Out here you would never know that there was a war on. It was a game Charlie liked to play, forgetting, pretending. Reality could be too hard to handle sometimes.

Despite the rising sun, Charlie gave a shiver as one of the other handlers came to relieve him of his shift. It had been a cold night and the warming spell he cast a few hours ago was starting to wear off. He was glad to stretch out and walked the long way round back to his cabin, to feel the full effects of the early morning sun on his skin.

The cabin door gave a loud creak as he opened it. He had been meaning to fix it for months, but it was one of those things he never quite got round to. No matter. No one else ever came in here anyway.

Charlie flung his coat down on the chair, filled his small kettle with water and put it on the stove to heat up. He wanted nothing more than to crash out, but there was a letter to his mum that needed writing and she didn't need to give her anything else to fret over. After the events of the recent months, Charlie knew she worried more and more each day, with good reason.

He walked past his bedroom door on the way to get some parchment and froze. The unusual shape his duvet took strongly suggested that someone was asleep under it. Cautiously, he inched into the room, wand at the ready, before gently lifting an edge of the covers. Brown, messy hair greeted him. His heart sank.

She had looked progressively worse the last three times he had seen her. If she had got to the point that she had to escape to Romania, things must be bad.

Protectively, he climbed on to the bed and curled around her, cursing every damn thing that was making her fall apart.


	5. Chapter 5

A few hours later

For the first time in weeks, Nymphadora Tonks wasn't woken by a nightmare. Gone was the usual feeling of panic and intense sadness that normally engulfed her as soon as she opened her eyes; instead she felt relaxed and well rested. The bed she lay in was comfy and a strong pair of arms held her tightly, making her feel safe.

"Remus?" She murmured sleepily.

An annoyed grunt quickly alerted her to her mistake. Memories of her excursion the previous evening came flooding back.

"Sorry Charlie." She was glad she was facing away from him, so he couldn't see her disappointment.

"What happened?" His tone was abrupt.

"Your mum insisted on having me over for dinner. I decided I missed you, so I got a Portkey late last night. A favour from a guy I helped out a couple of weeks ago."

"That wasn't what I meant."

"I know."

She rolled over, looking down at his arm to avoid his eyes. Using her finger, she began to join his freckles, picking out a dragon's wing, a cauldron, The Plough; it was an old habit but it always made her feel calmer. As her finger traced higher, she felt an angry welt under his t-shirt, which, on contact, caused him to wince.

"Dragons?"

"Death eaters."

Oh. Her heart sank. She liked to believe that Charlie was her one friend who was safe. He wasn't supposed to be facing the same dangers that the rest of them were.

"What happened?"

"I already asked you that question. Don't try and turn it around."

She looked up at him then, into his deep blue eyes that stared right back into her soul. She had always loved his eyes, but right now they were full of concern.

"I told you, I missed you."

"Bollocks."

Tonks had always prided herself on being able to conceal things; hell she could even change her appearance to do so (not that that was an option at the moment), but Charlie Weasley had a way of unpeeling her like an onion, uncovering the layers she had carefully built up to protect herself.

Charlie pulled her closer to him again and gently kissed the top of her head.

"I want to make it better. I'll do anything I can to make it better."

"I know. I wish you could. I just don't know Charlie, I don't know how to climb out of this mess."

A sob caught in her throat. She didn't want to cry. She hadn't come here to cry. She went to her parent's house to cry, or to The Burrow, where she would get fuss and tea and cake and someone would tell her it would all be okay. That wasn't what she wanted right now; it was why she had come to Charlie instead, because with Charlie she could just be. She could curl up and sleep or watch the clouds go by or drink something alcoholic and not be expected to be fixed by the time she got to the bottom of it.

Suddenly, Charlie leapt up from the bed.

"Get up."

"Where are we-?"

But he had already pulled her off the bed and chucked her shoes at her.

"Come on."

By the time she had fumbled with her boots he was waiting outside, broomstick in one hand.

Those blue eyes twinkled mischievously.

...

With her arms tightly around Charlie's waist, feeling the wind rush by, she let the exhilaration take over. They looped and swirled and soared, before gently coasting to take in the breathtaking views of the mountains. Just for a moment, life didn't seem as bad.


	6. Chapter 6

September 1984

"Dora! That's what they call you, is it?"

Nymphadora Tonks jumped at the sudden voice behind her and promptly dropped the letter she was reading into her pumpkin juice. She fished it out in what she hoped was a casual manner and tried to stop herself (face and hair) from going red.

"Interesting. Even your parents can't be bothered to call you by your full name. I guess Dora is an improvement, Nymphadora has far too many syllables!"

"I've told you, it's Tonks," she growled, finally turning around to face her antagoniser and not being at all surprised to see a shock of red hair.

"No, I like Dora. I'll see you in Transfiguration, Dora."

With that, he strode back to the Gryffindor table.

She had a horrible feeling that she would never get him to call her Tonks.


	7. Chapter 7

September 1984

Those boys were teasing her again.

Charlie's mum always told him that he walked around with his head in the clouds and that he never noticed anything, but he had noticed her and her funny colour changing hair and how it went red when she was angry or embarrassed. In the few weeks since they had begun at Hogwarts, he had also noticed that she often sat alone and that sometimes the Slytherins pointed to her and whispered, before going up to her and saying things that obviously weren't very nice. He knew she was trying to ignore them, like the other day on the stairs, but it didn't seem very fair.

He decided that perhaps he needed to stop teasing her about her name and start being nicer, because she looked like she needed a break and right now and he might be the only friend that she had.

He watched as she walked from the Great Hall, only to have one of the Slytherins stick out his foot and send her flying.

Right, that was it! Charlie jumped up from where he was sitting and ran forwards.

"You should pick on someone your own size," he threatened in his most menacing voice. It was only now that he realised quite how big the Slytherin boy was.

"And what are you going to do about it, Weasel?"

Hoping he looked a lot braver than he felt, Charlie pulled out his wand, desperately trying to think of any of the spells he had heard Bill using.

"Oooh, ooh is the little first year going to curse me?" the Slytheirn mocked.

"I don't know why you're laughing, Flint. He can definitely do better magic than you already," a familiar voice cut in.

"I don't know how. I thought you Weasels were all Muggle lovers. I'm surprised you even do magic at home!"

"At least we're not learning Dark Magic."

The Slytherin boy gave Bill a dark look and sloped off.

Relieved to have escaped unscathed, Charlie thanked his brother.

"Just don't go around trying to curse Slytherins too often, even if they are all gits," Bill gave his shoulder an affectionate squeeze and returned to his friends.

As Charlie walked from the hall, he noticed a lone figure lurking in the corridor. Her hair was red again.

"Thanks for that," she mumbled. "You really didn't have to."

Charlie stood up as tall as he could. "S'all right. I already told you, I'll protect you. I'll curse however many Slytherins you need me to!" He gave her a bow and although her face remained impartial, he could have sworn she was trying not to smile.

"Well...I'll see you around," she said quickly and began walking away.

"See you around, Dora," he called after her.

She didn't retaliate. Charlie smiled. He'd make a friend of her yet.


	8. Chapter 8

September 1984

Merlin's Baggy Pants, he was a good flier.

Their first flying lesson was the first time they had a class together where Charlie wasn't drawn over to Dora.

No, right now he was only concerned about one thing; getting back on a broomstick for the first time in a fortnight. Many complained about the poor quality of the school brooms, but for Charlie there was no comparison between them and the second hand brooms in the broom shed back home. He easily manoeuvred through the set of exercises reserved only for the most confident of fliers, to the approving eyes and catcalls of those below.

He was so caught up in the wondrous feeling of being back in the air that he didn't notice Dora's shaky start, or the time she fell off, or even the fact that she stayed a relatively safe metre and a half from the ground.

For the first time it was her that approached him at the end of the lesson as he reluctantly put the broom away, staring after it with such a sad look that Dora couldn't help herself. He was one of the few people in this place that spoke to her, after all.

"Hey, Charlie!"

Charlie turned around, his eyes brightening instantly upon seeing her. "Dora!"

"That was some pretty good flying."

Charlie's heart swelled at her approval.

"It seems to be a bit of a crime that someone as good as you isn't allowed a broomstick," she continued. "Although I was thinking that there might be something we could do about that."

Charlie looked at her eagerly. He would do anything to be able to fly outside of these stupid lessons.

"You'll owe me though, Charlie. Big time. And if this goes wrong, we'll be in heaps of trouble."

Charlie laughed. "Don't worry, I've grown up in a house with five brothers. I'm used to trouble. If you can get me flying, I'll do anything."

"Right, come on then." She darted off into the castle, Charlie right behind her.

Stopping metres from Professor McGonagall's office, Dora quickly checked the corridor before morphing into an incredible likeness of Madam Hooch.

"Do I look okay?"

"Perfect," Charlie breathed.

Madam Hooch knocked on Professor McGonagall's door. Charlie couldn't believe how easily Dora persuaded his head of house that he should be allowed to have extra flying time. He had the feeling that this wasn't her first time impersonating others.

Returning to the corridor, she resumed her own appearance.

"Right, now to Madam Hooch."

This time, talking to a very well impersonated McGonagall, the flying coach wholeheartedly agreed that, after the skills seen today, Charlie Weasley should definitely be allowed to break the first year rule and be allowed to fly in his spare time.

"See, easy."

Dora grinned and Charlie grinned back.

"That was amazing. You are my absolute hero. I'll do anything to pay you back, I promise."

Dora's eyes twinkled. "Anything?"


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: I wrote this a while ago, after reading the chapter on Flobberworms in Newt Scamander & the A-Z of Magizoology, by PixiePatronus. Somehow I don't think Ron would be the only Weasley brother to find Flobberworms a little too safe!

...

October 1986

"Urgh, I definitely thought that care of magical creatures would be more interesting than this!" Nymphadora Tonks poked her Flobberworm with disdain.

Charlie nodded in agreement, flicking his finely shredded lettuce in the worm's direction. "You're right. Flobberworms are just so...safe! I thought I'd get to learn about dragons."

"You do know that this is a school, Charlie. They'd be mad to bring dragons onto the premises."

Her words made no difference. The glazed look on her friend's face told her she'd already lost him to an imaginary place where he got to spend all day looking after more dangerous beasts.

November 1994

Charlie felt a rush of warmth as he stepped through the doorway into the Three Broomsticks. It was good to be out of the biting cold. He broke into a grin as he spotted a brilliant head of pink hair sat over by the fire. As soon as she saw him, she stood up and catapulted herself into his arms.

"Dora!"

"Wotcher, Charlie!"

Dora let Charlie buy her a drink, then ushered him closer in her spot next to the flames.

She lowered her voice. "So is it true, are you really here for the Triwizard Tournament?"

"And you said there would never be dragons at Hogwarts." He winked at her.

"Ha! You never thought it would be true either. Still, it's a good excuse to see you."

He grinned.

"How's training going?"

She pulled a face. "I seem to have a problem with stealth and tracking."

He snorted.

"Now why doesn't that surprise me?"


	10. Chapter 10

July 1997

"I'll stay. I can get my shifts switched around somehow. Use me instead of one of the others, instead of Ron, or Hermione, or Fleur."

The angry faces of Hermione, Fleur and his brother all glared at him.

"We're going, Charlie. Harry's our friend, we need to be there."

"I'll go instead of Dad then. Please, let me do something. I hate that I'm leaving you to face this; it's one of the most important missions we've had and now that Dumbledore's-"

"We've got it covered Charlie, it' fine. Just be ready to head back at short notice, if we need you." Dora said forcedly, glaring at him, before flicking her eyes to his mother.

Charlie turned to look at Molly's anguished face. She was nodding in agreement, trying to hide her relief that at least one of her sons was being spared. He could tell that she had spent the meeting trying to hold things together, but with most of her family involved in the mission she was struggling. Since the attacks on his father and Bill, she had become even more protective of them all, at a time when they had never been in more danger. She had been unusually quiet during the meeting, too preoccupied by worry he imagined.

Absentmindedly, Charlie started to run his fingers along the fresh scar on the underside of his arm. He was quickly greeted by a kick under the table from Dora. He gave her a look of thanks. Better not draw his mother's attention to the fact that he was hardly any safer in Romania.

...

"I'll see you at the wedding then," Dora grinned at him.

Charlie failed to smile back. "I still think you should let me trade places with someone. I feel so...useless...over there."

"You can't, Charlie. Look at what happened last time you faced a dragon straight after coming off an Order mission. Besides, your mum needs to think that at least one of her sons is safe."

"I know, I just feeling like I'm not pulling my weight."

Dora rolled her eyes. "You know that's not true, Charlie. I wasn't going to tell you this, because I didn't want to face Molly's wrath if it interfered with your plans for getting back for the big day, but if you're so keen to do something, we've had some reports of a small circle of Death Eaters congregating in Budapest. You could go and see if you can find anything out."

Charlie couldn't help but feel a small tingle of excitement.

"Only go if you think it's safe though, and don't you dare get yourself injured before the wedding, else my life won't be worth living!"

"Of course!"

At least now he could be doing something, not just waiting around for news, which to be frank, was rarely good these days.

"Right, I'd better be off. I told Remus I'd only be a couple of minutes behind him. Be safe, Charlie. Don't do anything stupid."

"You too. Good luck with getting Harry."

He faltered for a second, thinking about how she would be partnered up with his youngest brother, on a mission that, if discovered, could be catastrophic. Still, he had learnt by now it was better not to dwell on these things.

They grinned at each other and made light of it, because that was all they could do. But as he hugged her, Charlie couldn't help but think of the days ahead and hoped against hope, as he had found himself doing on every one of their meetings, that this wouldn't be the last time.

A/N: I am really sorry for disappearing for so long, real life just got really big on me. I'll try and be better over the next few months although I can't promise anything.


	11. Chapter 11

October 1986

"As a Prefect, I should report you for wandering the corridors at this hour." 

Charlie kept walking, ignoring the voice behind him. "As your favourite brother, you should grant me certain privileges."

"Where are you off to?"

"Nowhere." 

"It looks to me like you're heading for the dungeon. If Snape catches you, he'll find an excuse to kick you off the Quidditch team. He knows Slytherin will beat us if we don't have you." 

"Well, I just need to make sure I don't get caught then, don't I?"

The words were only just out of his mouth when the silhouette of Filch appeared at the end of the corridor. Bill grabbed his brother and yanked him into an empty classroom.

Filch clonked down the corridor, then stopped outside the classroom door.

"Has anyone ever told you that you walk really loudly, Bill? And coming from me, that's saying something. Got them, Charlie?"

The voice definitely didn't belong to Filch.

Charlie pulled two fat rats out of each pocket and handed them over.

"Password for the store cupboard is Murtlap. Heard him say it earlier."

"Brill. Keep watch for me, will you?"

Imposter Filch disappeared down the stairs into Snape's classroom. The Weasley brothers waited in silence until he returned five minutes later.

"Done?"

"Done."

"See you in Transfiguration."

"Night Charlie, night Bill."

Bill appeared deep in thought as they walked back to Gryffindor tower. "The escaped unicorns last week and the flooded bathroom the week before, was that you two as well?"

Charlie smiled. "What are you suggesting, dear brother? I am completely innocent. If you look closely, I think you'll find these are all the wrongdoings of the terribly conflicted Filch."

Meanwhile, in the corridor near the kitchens, after double checking that no one else was around, Nymphadora Tonks had just resumed her normal appearance. Well, it wouldn't do to have a middle aged Squib in the common room, would it?


	12. Chapter 12

September 1st 1988

"Charlie! Good summer?"

Charlie looked in the direction of the voice, which was coming from his purple haired best friend. Ordinarily he would have been made up to see her after a summer apart, but this year things were different.

He nodded and forced a smile. "You?"

"Brilliant. Dad took me camping – Muggle style. We had a right laugh. I'll tell you all about it in a minute. This compartments free."

"I can't," Charlie mumbled.

Dora looked confused.

"Come on."

"I can't," Charlie repeated. "I can't share a compartment with you; I've got to go to the Prefect's Carriage."

"You're a Prefect?"

Dora assumed a look very similar to the one his mum gave him when he did something wrong. The last of pride Charlie had been feeling melted away. He nodded, his face reddening.

"Why on earth would anyone make you a Prefect?"

Charlie's knew his face was now the colour of a tomato. "I, er..."

"What about all of our pranks? Are you going to have to be all boring now?"

"Course not...it'll be better now, I'll have even more of an excuse to be out after hours, you can morph and pretend to be one too, think of all the things we can do..."

Charlie gave her his most hopeful, winning smile, only to have it countered with a frown.

"You're fooling yourself Charlie, it's a downhill spiral now. Bill is Head Boy, Percy is just perfect and now you're a Prefect. Your pranking days are over."

"Come on Dora, you know that's not true."

"Whatever!"

With that, she slammed the carriage door shut, narrowly missing his fingers.

Charlie sighed and miserably pulled his trunk down the train.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: I wrote this just after HBP came out, which shows just how long I've been writing!

November 1990

"Charlie Weasley, don't think that you can avoid detention just because of your performance on Saturday. It doesn't matter how good your Quidditch skills are, you still don't have the right to break the rules. Besides, you are expected to set an example."

Charlie stared at his head of house, in what he hoped could be classed as an attentive manner. "I'm sorry, Professor."

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips, a sign that she was thinking hard. "Charlie, what days do Gryffindor have Quidditch practice?"

"Tuesdays and Thursdays, Professor."

"Very well, report to my office at seven o'clock on Wednesday night. I would hate for the entire Quidditch team to have to suffer for your foolish antics."

Charlie nodded, feeling relieved. Detention with McGonagall was bound to be awful, but missing Quidditch? That was even worse.

...

The corridors were almost empty as Charlie made his way to McGonagall's office. He could understand why. The late November rain pelted the windows and a strong wind could be heard howling through the thick castle walls. He greatly resented having to leave the warm, cheerful Common Room and his seat next to the fire.

The sight of another figure outside the office soon put a smile on his face, however. Slouched against the wall, picking at a thread in her robes, it seemed she was unconcerned about her fate. The long black hair that fell about her face, Charlie noted, had earlier been a vibrant shade of purple.

"Dora!"

"Charlie!"

"What did you do?"

"Spent Transfiguration trying to replicate Johnny Brown's exact eye colour – have you ever noticed he has beautiful eyes?"

Charlie frowned in confusion.

"Anyway, apparently that was not a constructive use of lesson time." Dora scowled. "What's the point in me being a Metamorphmagus if they won't let me use my powers? It'd be like banning you from playing Quidditch."

"I'm surprised McGonagall didn't after Saturday night."

"So that _is_ why you're here. I thought after all of the boasting you did in Charms earlier you must have got away with it."

Charlie blushed. "Well…"

Dora had dissolved into fits of giggles. She loved embarrassing Charlie. When he became a Prefect and Quidditch captain she was worried that he'd go all serious on her. In fact it had been quite the opposite. He seemed to go out of his way to prove that he was still capable of breaking the rules. She'd been quite annoyed that she wasn't invited along on Saturday night, but after finding out that they'd been caught…it made the whole situation rather hilarious.

"I hope you are aware that you are here for detention." Professor McGonagall had suddenly appeared in front of them.

Charlie straightened herself up immediately, noticing Dora do the same. "Yes, Professor," they said in unison.

"Very good, I have some filing for you to do. Now, if you could follow me…"

Turning to follow McGonagall, Charlie tried not to laugh as Dora wrinkled her nose.

Dora was rather amazed at how lightly the two of them had got off. It turned out that Peeves had played havoc with the records in some sort of filing room, so McGonagall had left her and Charlie to sort them out, or, given them the perfect opportunity for Dora to debate Charlie's recent antics.

"Who would have thought it; the Slytherins are scared of a few little spiders!"

Charlie grimaced. "They weren't very little. If someone had posted engorged spiders into our Common Room, I'd probably have been scared too. I wasn't that keen on holding them as we went down to the dungeon. I didn't think they'd grow that big."

Dora couldn't contain her laughter. "It's such a shame that Snape found out and rescued them. Imagine if none of them had turned up for breakfast in the morning and they were found all wrapped up in giant spider's webs, with their heads chewed off."

"I guess you think that if you were with us we wouldn't have been caught?"

Dora smirked. "Obviously. For one thing I wouldn't have boasted about it to all of my friends –"

"Shelley wouldn't have –"

"Shelley would have and Shelley did. How can you stand her Charlie? She's awful."

Charlie's girlfriend had been a sore topic for the two of them ever since Charlie started seeing her. Dora was fully aware of the fact that Shelley was only interested because of Charlie's Quidditch success, but when she mentioned this fact to Charlie he refused to believe her.

"Dora, please. I know you think I couldn't get a girl just for being me, that I'm only interesting because of Quidditch but I'm sure not everyone thinks like that –"

"For Merlin's sake Charlie, you think I don't know that? I share a dorm with Shelley though; I've heard her bragging about you to the other girls. She spends half her time planning what she's going to spend your money on when you're playing Quidditch for England. I take it you haven't told her about the dragons?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything!"

"I suppose you think you're so special because you're the only one I've confided in?"

Dora knew she'd taken things a step too far. If they had many more of these arguments, she was worried she'd ruin their friendship for good. She tried to remain calm.

"I just wanted to let you know that you deserve someone better than her, that's all."

"I'll let you know when I want your relationship advice," he replied, a little too sharply.

An awkward silence followed, although they occasionally shot each other a scowl.

Eventually Charlie spoke. He never had been very good at staying mad at her.

"You realise half of these are punishment reports, with the crimes listed? I'm actually starting to get some really good ideas."

Dora forced a smile. "You will take me along with you next time won't you, even if I have to share you with her?"

Charlie smiled back, his anger forgotten as soon as it had come. "Course I will. You know, I'm actually really impressed with these guys. I think they must've had a whole draw to themselves. They did some really impressive stuff."

"Who are they?"

"James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Wait, isn't Sirius Black…"

Dora cringed at the name. "…My cousin? …A murderer? …In league with You-Know-Who? Yeah, that's him."

"I remember the story; my dad told Bill and I. James Potter, he was the father of Harry Potter, he got killed by You-Know-Who. Black was their secret keeper, it was him who sold them out. Then, a few days later, he killed a street full of innocent people, including the Pettigrew guy. Imagine what a psycho he must have been, to be able to kill two of his best friends."

Dora wasn't listening. The story represented everything she hated about her family. The Blacks, the Lestrange's, the Malfoy's…the evil of the earth. She often worried that she'd inherited some of their bad blood; that somehow she would turn out like them.

Charlie noticed her obvious discomfort. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. Did I ever tell you I'm related to them too? My dad's like a second cousin once removed and my mum's related through marriage. I'm not quite sure how we fit, but we're somewhere in that whole mess of things."

Dora shook her head, feeling a little better. At least Charlie didn't care about her background, not like some people she could mention.

"I feel pretty sorry for Remus Lupin though. Imagine what it must be like, being the only one left?"

Dora scooted over to look at the piece of parchment Charlie was holding.

"Despite being a Prefect, Remus continues to break the rules when influenced by his friends," she read. "Sounds a bit like you."

Charlie laughed and then gasped. "Merlin, he's a werewolf!"

Dora frowned. "So?"

"Well, it's rather unusual isn't it? Especially Dumbledore letting him come to Hogwarts. What if he attacked somebody?"

"They class Metamorphmagi as highly dangerous too you know!"

"Quite rightly too."

They smiled at each other.

"You will be okay won't you, if I go off to Romania? I'll worry about you, you know, especially if you get into the Auror programme."

Dora mocked offence. "I've told you before Charlie, I'm quite capable of looking after myself. You'll be the one needing me to look after you."

Charlie smirked. "Well, I'll still worry. Maybe I should track down Remus Lupin and get him to keep an eye out for you. He seems like a decent sort of chap; a Prefect who breaks the rules. I think I could trust him to keep you safe. Just stay away from him on the night of the full moon."

Dora laughed.


End file.
